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Its name is "Titanfall," and its importance to Electronic Arts and, especially, is immense.

Microsoft is hoping the game will spur sales of its Xbox One game console and give its video-game business new energy in its big battle with PlayStation.

"Titanfall" will also, the software giant hopes, show how cloud computing can reach down and become part of just about everyone's lives.

The game, you see, pulls data, graphics and other instructions down from Microsoft's Window Azure network so that the game participant can get more out of the game. One feature of the game is that players must all play online.

"Titanfall" was released Tuesday after previews around the country on Monday night. Celebrity gamers showed up at many of the events. Richard Sherman, the Seattle Seahawks' all-pro cornerback and admitted manic gamer, came to the preview at the Microsoft Store in Bellevue, Wash.

The reception from gamers on Monday night and reviews of the game on the Internet before "Titanfall's" release may have filtered down to Microsoft's share price. The shares moved up 20 cents, or 0.5%, to $38.02 on Tuesday on a day when stocks generally moved lower. On Wednesday, the shares were up again, this time a gain of 25 cents to $38.27. Microsoft was the fifth-best performer on Tuesday and fourth-best on Wednesday among the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Electronic Arts also benefitted from the game's launch, rising a total of 2.6% on Tuesday and Wednesday to $29.98.

Titanfall @ Gamescom (Photo credit: wuestenigel)

The importance of "Titanfall" for Microsoft is this: The Xbox One console retails for $500. Sony's PlayStation 4 game console retails for $400, although it has fewer of the features of the Xbox. So far, PlayStation 4 has outsold the Xbox with some 6 million PlayStation sold to 3.9 million for Xbox. So the hope is that a hot game like "Titanfall," which can only be played on Microsoft consoles or Windows-based PCs will help the Xbox.

Microsoft is giving Titanfall fans a little incentive. Buy the console for $500, and Microsoft will throw in a copy of the game, which is supposed to retail for $60.

Time will tell if the strategy will work. You might be able to see some effect of "Titanfall" in Microsoft's fiscal-third-quarter results, which come out in April. Anecdotal evidence will be piling up by then. There were reports that the hype surrounding the game generated $1 billion in sales of Xbox One consoles in the last month or so as the hype built around "Titanfall." The game won more than 60 awards at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo and has generated very positive reviews. Harry Tucker, writing on the Australian site New.com called it the best game ever. Writing on Gamestop.com, Chris wrote, "'Titanfall' is a leap forward for shooters, a game that combines the vibrant and new with the tried and true to create something special."

Titanfall does have good roots. It was developed by Respawn Entertainment, a Southern California company founded by Jason West and Vince Zampella, who developed the wildly popular "Call of Duty" while working for Infinity Ward, a subsidiary of . The game is distributed by Electronic Arts, but Microsoft was involved in the game's development almost from the beginning and, reportedly, financed a hefty chunk of the game's development. How much is unclear.

That leads to another question. Why did Microsoft put up the dollars? The short answer is that developing a good, nay great, video game has become a very expensive proposition. And it's not clear if game developers want to develop new games for specific platforms. A survey by the Game Developers Conference shows that only 20% of developers plan to release their games on PlayStation 4 and 17% on Xbox One. Instead, they want to release their products for PCs and smart phones and tablets.

The Motley Fool noted that the last few years have been difficult for game developers who make games primarily for consoles. THQ was liquidated. Last year, Walt Disney shut down both Junction Point Studios (which made its Epic Mickey Wii game) and LucasArts (which made Star Wars games). Sony laid off a quarter of its game development staff.

Meanwhile, a new player in games may be emerging: Amazon.com. Last month, the online retailing giant acquired game developer Double Helix. According to Katherine Rushton, writing for The Telegraph newspaper in London, Amazon is actively recruiting developers and others in Seattle and in the Silicon Valley.